WORLDCOM TURNS UP FIRST PAN-EUROPEAN NETWORK COMBINING LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE
PR Newswire - July 20, 1998 07:16
* Creates first facilities-based pan-European telecom company.
* Completes core of the end-to-end managed global network strategy.
* Meeting Europe's terabit demand for bandwidth, today.
AMSTERDAM, BRUSSELS, FRANKFURT, LONDON, NEW YORK and PARIS, July 20
/PRNewswire/ -- WorldCom, Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM) today announced its pan-European
fibre-optic network is operational and new high-bandwidth services - including the world's first
building to building, on-net, international ATM service - is commercially available. The
2,000-mile long distance network connects existing WorldCom city networks in London,
Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt. Together with the Gemini transatlantic cable system
and the company's existing US local and long distance networks, over 27,000 office buildings in
the US and 4,000 buildings in Europe are now connected by a single seamless, high capacity
fibre-optic network.
"The European network is the centrepiece of WorldCom's strategy to be the world's premier
provider of telecom services over its own facilities, owned and managed end-to-end," said John
Sidgmore, chief operations officer at WorldCom, Inc. "No other company can match our ability
to offer customers a combined local/global, full function telecom and Internet service in the
multinational dimension. We are the first and only company to attain the goal of a
local-global-local service - and it's delivered over our own networks and managed by our own
people," he said.
"Real" ATM
The new services available over the network include the first, real international Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM) service. Unlike any other international service on the market, the
WorldCom service provides full ATM functionality at bandwidths between 2Mbps and
45Mbps with a common feature set, over a common technology platform with full end-to-end
management and control. The service is priced to provide an effective migration path for existing
Frame Relay customers toward broadband networking speeds and functionality. (See below
Note to Editors: ATM)
New Class of International Circuits
This new network also enables building-to-building private circuits of STM-1 (155Mbps) and
DS3 (45Mbps). These high capacity circuits, hitherto the domain of the wholesale
telecommunications carrier market, are available on a retail basis. These new on- net circuits, as
well as the more traditional E1 (2Mbps) and fractional E1 circuits, will be the first in Europe to
be provisioned by a single company over a single network end-to-end. Previously such circuits
would be provisioned by up to four different organisations with multiple interconnect points that
are subject to network management and cost overhead.
A Value Revolution
As a result of this single network infrastructure, WorldCom is able to revolutionise the value to
customers of their international telecommunications by pricing both on-net international private
circuits and the ATM services independent of origin and destination. Paris to London is priced
the same as Paris to Frankfurt, Amsterdam to London etc. etc. The arcane and arbitrary
traditional methods of settling international telecoms pricing between incumbent monopoly PTTs
has meant that circuits of equal distance, but crossing different international boundaries, could
vary in price by up to five times. WorldCom's on-net circuits offer further exceptional value as
they are provisioned over a fully resilient SDH network, eliminating the requirement for
additional, diverse route circuits.
"We have just killed the idea that intra-European traffic is an international market in the
traditional sense," said John Sidgmore. "Since the EC launched its farsighted, regional
liberalisation program, WorldCom has looked at the European market opportunity in the same
way that we have looked at the US long distance market. Now our customers can buy that
vision!"
A Major Infrastructure Project for the Terabit Age
WorldCom's pan-European fibre optic network is a major telecommunications infrastructure
project. Excluding the fibre optic cable already installed as metropolitan area networks (MANs)
in the on-net cities, the pan-European network comprises 2,000 route miles of fibre-optic cable,
multiple repeater and regenerating stations and two submarine crossings of the English Channel.
The network is a series of fully resilient, fibre-optic, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) loops
that support multiple 2.5 gigabit channels per fibre pair using wave division multiplexing (WDM)
and optical amplifiers. The current configuration provides 40 gigabits per second capacity.
WDM technology will support a capacity in the 10s of gigabits per fibre pair and allow for rapid
installation of additional capacity as customer demands increase. Furthermore critical sections of
the network, including the submarine legs, are provisioned with 48 fibre cables enabling the
entire system to be readily upgraded to terabit (1,000 gigabits per second) capacity as demand
grows. Gemini Submarine Cable Network is also a WDM-enabled SDH system currently
providing 40 gigabits capacity between New York and London.
Network management is provided by a hierarchy of management centres. The pan-European
network is controlled by the International Network Operations and Control Centre (INOCC) in
Amsterdam. The INOCC has "visibility" of the entire long distance network including services
provided by Gemini and the US networks while each city's Local Operations and Control
Centre (LOCC) provides immediate support to local customers. This control centre hierarchy
enhances network performance, resilience and customer support. The capability exists for each
control centre to have complete end-to-end visibility and management of a circuit at customer
premise equipment level.
Notes to Editors
ATM
ATM technology allows customers to consolidate different traffic types onto a single back bone
network platform. WorldCom's ATM service can be configured to optimize transmission costs
to traffic type. A customer can order a single ATM service capable of supporting all or any of
the following:
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) where the customer is guaranteed delivery of the bandwidth
contracted for. This provides a solution for customers requiring high performance of specific
capacity circuits between 1Mbps and 8Mbps and is ideally suited to enable customers to
integrate critical and time sensitive applications such as voice and video within the corporate
data network.
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) where the customer is guaranteed a sustained bit rate but is able to
burst to predetermined limits to meet peak traffic demands. VBR provides corporate customers
with a solution to the need to grow capacity on existing data networks where fast response
times are critical.
Available Bit Rate (ABR) where the customer does not receive a guaranteed bit rate but is
assured an average number of bits are transferred over a given period of time. This provides
customers with a cost effective solution to non-delay and non-time sensitive applications such as
file transfer and email.
The service combining the three service types would provide a customer with a single,
consolidated and managed backbone to carrying voice, traditional data, IP and video traffic
between on-net sites throughout Europe.
WorldCom International
A pan-European telecommunications company, WorldCom has operational local interconnects
with the incumbent telecommunications companies in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Sweden to provide customers with national and international service. In Italy
and Switzerland the company provides international services. The company has 45 public voice
switches across Europe and the company's own fibre optic network reaches over 4000
buildings through high capacity circuits in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam and
Stockholm. Further metropolitan area networks are under development in Hamburg,
Dusseldorf, Rotterdam, Dublin and Zurich.
These operations enable the company to address a market generating over 70% of Europe's
gross domestic product.
WorldCom International is also developing its operations in the Asia- Pacific region in step with
deregulation in that market. It is building metropolitan area networks in Sydney, Australia and
Tokyo, Japan and consolidating its non-facilities, resale businesses to serve customer needs for
connectivity to the regions other key business centres. The company is also participating in two
new transpacific cable construction projects, US- Japan Cable Network System and Southern
Cross (Oceania to US).
WorldCom, Inc.
WorldCom, Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM), is a global telecommunications company with 1997
revenues of $7.5 billion. With established operations in over 50 countries encompassing the
Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, WorldCom is a premier provider of
facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet Services.
WorldCom's global networks, including its state-of-the-art pan-European network and
transoceanic cable systems, provide end-to-end connectivity to over 31,000 buildings
worldwide. WorldCom's World Wide Web address is: wcom.com. On November
10, 1997, WorldCom announced a definitive merger agreement with MCI Communications
Corporation. The merger is expected to be completed this Summer.
SOURCE WorldCom, Inc.
/CONTACT: International Media: Mark Weeks, (44) 171 570 5759,
US Media: Terri Howell, (1) 402 231 3450, or Investors: Gary Brandt,
(1) 601 360 8544/
/Web site: wcom.com
(WCOM WCOMP)
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